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Joseph Lepore
bass
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 Bassist
Joseph Lepore was born in New York and raised in Salerno, Italy when his
parents moved the family back to their home country. Classically trained Lepore
graduated from the Conservatory in Salerno with high honors and not too long after,
left his hometown for Rome, where he joined a teaming musical scene and thriving
jazz community.
Soon he began playing with some of Italy's more prominent members and visiting
US jazz musicians, including Bob Dorough, Antonio Farao',
Roberto
Gatto, Joy Garrison, George Garzone,
Steve
Grossman, Tom Kirkpatrick,
David Liebman,
Mike Maineri, Bob Mover,
Romano Mussolini,
Jimmy Owens,
Enrico
Pieranunzi,
Tony Scott,
Gary Smulian, Elliot Zigmund, and others.
Among other activities, Lepore worked on Italian television shows and taught
jazz bass performance and theory in music schools both in Salerno and Rome, with
the same energy and enthusiasm, as when he was performing. From
1997 through 1999
Joseph has played with the quartet of saxophonist
Rosario Giuliani.
Throughout the latter part of the '90s, he played
with groups traveling the festival circuits and he performed at some of the better
known jazz festivals: Gexto Jazz Festival (Spain), Jazz a Liegi (Belgium), the
Umbria Jazz Festival, Jazz & Image, Ancona Jazz, Marajazz, Urbino Jazz, and Teano
Jazz, just to name a few..
In September 1997, he competed in the Europ
Jazz Contest, one of the most important competitions, held annually in Brussels.
Out of 60 groups, most of them coming from various parts of the European continent,
the quartet he was performing with claimed first prize and were crowned the best
musical group that year.
 Two
years later, Joseph returned to New York City and landed a gig playing as a member
of Trio 65, the house band at Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room, performing
six days a week. New York being a mecca for jazz and jazz musicians, he was able
to stay employed playing with some of the best jazz artists anywhere: J.d.allen,
Clifford Barbaro, Isaac Ben Ayala, David Berkman, Peter Bernstein,
Adam Birnbaum, Otis Brown, Chris Byars, Renato Chicco, Tim
Collins,
Billy Drummond, Duane Eubanks, Joe Farnswoth, Joel Frahm,
Rick Germanson, Dave Gibson, Aaron Goldberg, Ned Goold, Noah Haidu,
Tardo Hammer, Rufus Harley, Frank Hewitt, Victor Jones, Michael
Kanan, Billie Kay, Ralph La Lama, Brad Leali, Eric Lewis, Jimmy Lovelace,
Joe Magnarelli, Pete Malinverni, Ronnie Matthews, Bill McHenry,
Eric Mcpherson,
Dado Moroni,
John Mosca, Lance Murphy, Cynthia Scott, James Spaulding,
Grant Stewart, Richie Vitale, Nasheet Waits, Ben Waltzer, Harry Withaker,
Michael Wilner, Michael Weiss, Lenny White, Jeff Williams, Richard Wyands,
LeRoy Williams, Sam Yahel.
Joseph had an opportunity to work in the film industrty appearing in Anthony
Minghella's film, The Talented Mr. Ripley which starred Matt Damon, Jude
Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2006 Lepore returned
to academe when he was admitted into the jazz program at CCNY, to further hone his
virtuosity, while still gigging around the New York City area. Among his tutors
was the legendary bassist,
John
Patitucci.
Two years later (2008) he was "hand picked"
by renowned saxophonist Greg Osby for his new band of upcoming talents,
with whom he has recorded the album "9 Levels", which provided him significant
exposure, and brought him closer to record his own album.
Osby had launched Inner Circle Music, in 2007,
providing a fresh crop of gifted jazz artists, with the opportunity to record and
distribute their own projects. But before Lepore signed on to record, he accepted
a teaching grant that took him to the Ecole Nationale De Musique in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast, to teach jazz performance. He had been to Africa in
2004, with singer Cynthia Scott, traveling and
performing as part of the American Music Abroad program sponsored by the
State Department and the Kennedy Center and in 2007,
he had returned with the Charlie Porter Quartet as part of the same Music
Abroad program, sponsored by the State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Upon
his return, he resumed where he had left off with Osby.
Joseph Lepore continues to work with Osby and has recently completed work
on his first album for Inner Circle Music titled Journal, scheduled for release
the latter part of summer 2010.
Contacts and Information:
Joseph Lepore
web: www.josephleporemusic.com
www.innercirclemusic.net/lepore.php
myspace: www.myspace.com/josephlepore
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Last Modified Date: 26/07/2010
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